It’s not like we are sharing news here, but equality and diversity in every aspect of society and business is not only fair, it also leads to better results.
At Malt we want to give every member of our community the tools to succeed in their career — as an employee or as a freelancer.
While a lot of articles are published in March on women in the workplace, only few are published on the self-employed.
So let’s have a look at the data of Malt to understand better where we are in gender equality among freelancers.
Gender Distribution
On Malt 35% of independent professionals are women.
The highest percentage with 45% female freelancers we find in Spain, in France 34% of freelancers are women and in Germany it’s only 26%.
While female professionals outnumber men in communication, there is an extremely low percentage of women in the tech & data field for example. But, even if the changes are small, we see a progressive feminization of all professions.
These numbers should be put in the context of overall participation of women in the digital workforce. The European Commission’s Women in Digital Scoreboard, a study to assess EU countries’ performance in regards to women’s participation in the digital economy looks at several indicators to measure the representation of women in the digital workforce. One indicator is the percentage of ICT specialists. In France women make up 21.2% of ICT specialists, in Germany only 16.4% and in Spain 17.1%.
Additionally, as being a freelancer means founding your own business and being your own boss, it also seems relevant to compare the percentage of female freelancers with the percentage of female founders. A recent report from Startup Heatmap finds only 15.5 % of founders to be female.
So what can we learn from comparing the participation of women in these areas?
- The participation of women in digital professions is above average in freelancing.
- Women are successful founders. There is still a overall gender bias to overcome especially in the tech sector, but the number of female founders (=freelancers) seems to increase with less dependance on external funding.
But there is more to look at: With the data we can gather from the 230.000 freelancers registered on Malt and the 2.300 answers we collected in our annual survey on Freelancing in Europe 2021 we are able to paint a clearer picture of the female freelancer in Europe and how their reasons to freelance differ from those of their fellow male freelancers.
The stronger favouritism towards the time management aspect tells us that employers still have catching up to do in giving their employees more freedom in their time management. On the other hand it indicates that the importance of a work-life balance, where both career and a family fit into, is still a bigger concern for women than it is for men.
Taking the leap pays of for most women
In terms of salary the numbers show that especially for women the reality exceeds their expectations.
And also their project closing performance is slightly higher!
Comparing the number of project proposals received with the number of projects completed, we noted that globally on Malt women have a slightly higher project rate than men (66% for women, 64.9% for men). When it comes to completing projects, women are performing slightly stronger and more efficient.
Unsurprisingly, women who are already represented in freelance digital jobs do well. A fact, that we hope can be encouraging for more women to take the leap and succeed in the digital sector as freelancers.
Happy International Women’s Month! Aday to celebrate our achievements, but also to be remembered of the work we still have ahead of us.
